Archive for the ‘Bassists’ Category

Can’t post tonight. Here’s my account of how a record company helped me out after I conducted the best interview ever of one of its stars. Repayment for the best interview ever After “Gene Simmons: Call Him Doctor Love” was published in Bass Player, I did something for the first and only time in my…

The proofreader of Ghosts and Ballyhoo: Memoirs of a Failed LA Music Journalist is named Tom Pickel. He generously did the job for free. A professional would’ve charged me $2000 at least. Tom is a great proofreader; today he informed me that he’s also a very odd fellow, which is truly excellent. I’m a huge…

Stephen Jay is a druid. He’s also been “Weird Al” Yankovic’s bassist for over thirty years. However, he’s also a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, lyricist, and classically trained composer who studied with John Cage, Lukas Foss, Max Neuhaus, and Charles Wuorinen, and he’s a music ethnographer who’s traveled the world playing with and recording folk musicians from…

I need a video of Operation Four Little Martyrs, but none of the professionals I’ve queried will make one for me. Anti-Israel sentiment is the main culprit, I’m sure, followed by peer pressure and fear of reprisals by terrorists. Since I really want a video, I’ve decided to host a contest. There will be three…

When I wrote Ghosts and Ballyhoo, I had to leave out tons of stuff I wanted to include. There just wasn’t enough room. Also, I’m not interesting enough to publish a multi-volume memoir. One of the bassists who I didn’t mention in the book but who had a huge impact on me is Carol Colman,…

Here’s my second interview since 2002. It’s with bassist Joe Burcaw. We have a lot in common, and we would likely disagree on nearly everything if we got into it politically and socially. But why would I do that to Joe? I like his playing. That’s all that matters. There was one question that I…

Ever since I was a child, I dreamed of going to hell. I never saw flames and demons. Instead, my hell was full of unreachable, loud people; inexplicable machinery; winding corridors; and a sense of powerlessness, purposelessness, and hopelessness. Today I saw a video that someone made during his tour of hell. Before I post…

I had a friend I called “Lola” in Ghosts and Ballyhoo. She was a brilliant musician, an incredible athlete, had a great sense of humor, and could draw anything. Now that Mom and Dad are gone, I can admit that when I was eighteen in Stavanger, Norway, Lola used to sneak over at night and…

I never discuss politics publicly. Unfortunately, everything in American culture is now politicized, so my statements are viewed as political even when they’re not. That’s the problem with politics. Too many people personalize their political views, so having a different opinion from them is seen as a repudiation of their entire being. But facts don’t…

Recently a very angry, quite insane person demanded to know how I could write so much, since I have arthritis in both hands. Well, here’s a news bulletin: It hurts. But my alternatives are limited. I could try this, I suppose. Or this. When it comes to the electric bass, though, I’m without options. I…